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The benefits that come from such a device are manifold and by now I'm sure that most Aardvark readers will be familiar with concepts such as timeshifting, ad-skipping and other things that stand to turn commercial free-to-air (FTA) broadcasts into a far more enjoyable experience.

One of the other key features of the US Tivo system is its access to, and use of, an electronic program guide.

This guide turns the Tivo from just another video recorder into a smart device that can automatically record stuff you didn't even know was going to be on -- solely because it matches a genre of programme material that you are obviously interested in.

Tivo users can reclaim many hours of time otherwise wasted watching inane advertisements and waiting for the few shows worth watching to actually start.

What's more, users of this device have been able to keep their own on-disk libraries of their most popular shows and movies -- but that might be about to change.

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It would appear that the very things that made Tivo such a breakthrough are now being gradually pulled from its list of features.

Very soon, Tivo owners will find that their boxes no longer allow them to archive some broadcasts -- namely pay-per-view and video-on-demand content.

The company seems to have bowed to pressure from broadcasters and copyright holders and will be distributing an "upgrade" to the recorder's software that will impose stringent limits on the lifetime of such recorded material.

Tivo themselves are playing down the impact and effect of this restriction but I believe it's just the start of what will become an ongoing dismantling of the freedom this device has offered viewers.

What's the bet that FTA broadcasters next demand that the Tivo box honours some kind of flag that makes certain ads "unskippable"?

With a growing number of viewers now empowered to zip past those annoying advertisements, imagine how much more a broadcaster could charge for ad-space that was flagged as unskippable?

I fear that within a year or two, the Tivo will offer few (if any) benefits over your good old VCR.

Here in NZ, Sky TV are still promising to deliver a PVR to its customers -- as they have been promising for several years now.

The market is still very ripe for anyone who wants to roll out a Tivo-equivalent here in NZ -- except for one very important thing...

As I've mentioned before, Kiwi broadcasters still assert copyright over their programme listings and they're unlikely to allow a Tivo-like service to set up an electronic programme guide if they know that users of such a system will be able to skip their advertisers' messages.

While government is reviewing our copyright laws in respect to new media, perhaps they ought to except programme listings from protection and categorise them as "facts" rather than "creative works".

Unless this happens, don't expect to see a proper Tivo-like service in NZ any time soon.

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